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The Seabrooke Family Trust has donated 1.4 million Sabvest Capital shares to the Witwatersrand University Foundation, a gift valued at 204.4 million rand, or about $12.6 million.
The transfer was made off-market on Sept. 22 and disclosed to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange the following day. No money changed hands, and the value is calculated on Sabvest's share price of 146 rand on the day of the transaction.
The money is earmarked for one thing. Wits is expanding its Arts Precinct, and the donation supports that project.
Christopher Seabrooke has run Sabvest Capital since 1987 and is a discretionary beneficiary of the trust that made the gift. The trust's economic interest in the company falls to 38.8% from 42.6% as a result.
What it does not lose is control. Sabvest's own filings show the trust holds voting control through an unlisted Z share rather than through its ordinary shares, which means giving away 1.4 million ordinary shares reduces the family's economic stake without weakening its grip on the company.
Donating shares rather than writing a cheque also changes what the university receives. The foundation now holds an asset that pays dividends every year rather than a sum that is spent once. Sabvest declared 90 cents a share for 2023, which on a holding of that size would produce more than a million rand annually.
Seabrooke has spent his career in the arts as well as in finance. He chaired the South African State Theatre and was deputy chairman of the first board of the National Arts Council of South Africa, and he took his MBA at Wits after a commerce degree and an accountancy degree at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
He is 73 and joined Sabvest in 1980, seven years before becoming chief executive. The company first listed in Johannesburg in 1988 as Sabvest Limited and has traded as Sabvest Capital since 2020. It holds stakes in businesses including the mining services group DRA Global, through its investment vehicle Apex, and the electrical distributor ARB. MarketScreener valued his shareholding at $150 million in June.
The donation is large by South African standards. The Motsepe Foundation gave 30 million rand across all 26 of the country's universities in 2023, which makes this gift to a single institution nearly seven times that.
Sabvest filed the required notices with the Takeover Regulation Panel, and disclosed the change in beneficial ownership under section 122 of the Companies Act and the exchange's listing rules. Rand Merchant Bank acted as sponsor.
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